Google Search Now Links With Play Music Brings Connected Music Playback

Google is always improving its Search app and its functionality, as well as Google Now, and as always, that voice interactivity has been improving since day one. And today we have a new feature unearthed, courtesy of a tweet from our friends at Google. The feature is the ability to say a musical artist's name, and have as well as a card and possible voice readout of who they are, a list of compatible apps on your device to listen to their music. If you like Daft Punk, say the name to Search, and click either Google Play Music or YouTube to interact with their music. Play Music lets you go see their latest album, and YouTube lets you check the latest on the topic of the artist, including activity, videos and playlists relating to or having Daft Punk as a topic.

The downside as there always is with Google, is that being they're an American-based company means that the feature is rolling into play for the United States only at this time. People overseas, especially those in Canada and Mexico, we in the United States are sorry Google wants to use its home nation as (essentially) beta testing, but fear not, this will likely become a nifty feature, essential to music lovers everywhere, then it can be accessed by music lovers everywhere.

Along with Google music service integration and linking, we gain the connection to iHeartRadio, Tunein, and Rdio services, if you have the app installed on your device. The compatibility with these apps varies by artist requested, but for Tunein connection, it opens a list of radio stations playing/that play music by the artist in question, I would presume, for lack of testing availability, the other apps would do much the same, making or finding stations or playlists based on and around or of the artists music for listening enjoyment. The lag between selecting your choice is noticeable, but remember that this is still a new feature, so bugs and errors may occur. But the added convenience (and connectedness with popular, non-Google music services) is promising for a Google Search app that only uses Google services. So, go try the feature out on your favorite artist, and tell your Android-wielding friends to give it a whirl too!